19th August – 24th August 2026
Reading time: 7 minutes
Day 149
We spent a few days in Raufarhofn, North Iceland waiting for a weather window to get around the Langanes peninsular and hopefully then down to the Faroe Islands about 375nm away.
We climbed up the hill to see the Arctic Henge, Iceland’s largest artwork, enjoyed a swim and hot tub all to ourselves at the local pool and stocked up the provisions.
Various jobs around the boat got ticked off the list and the Windy app got frequent visits until we eventually decided that Wednesday 19th August would be good day to escape. We needed to get customs clearance before leaving and, as we were not in a recognised port of arrival, it could be problematic. I phoned them to explain and was told if I didn’t hear back it would be OK to go.
On the evening before our planned departure it was still blowing old boots from the wrong direction but the wind died off at 03:00 in the morning and thick fog descended. We set off into dense fog at 05:00 and slowly felt our way out of the harbour into a 1m swell. By 07:00 the sun began to appear though the haze and acrobatic dolphins came to entertain us.
It is crucial to arrive at Langanes headland some 35nm away at slack water as there is a nasty “ rost”, or overfalls, if you get it wrong.
As we approached the first part of the headland we were surrounded by thousands of gannets from the nearby colony on the cliffs.
It is necessary to pass the headland a “biscuit toss” from the land so I came into reach of a phone signal and received message requiring three customs forms to be filled in and approved before we can leave the country. It could involve needing to divert to Seydisfjordur to clear out and thus missing our short weather window.
However, the Icelandic Customs were being their usual understanding selves and granted us permission to leave without needing to divert our course.
The wind was rather light and abaft the beam and with the remaining old sea state it wasn’t strong enough to sail at enough speed to avoid the predicted strong southerly winds due on Sunday.
Whilst chugging along I noticed the speed suddenly dropping off with no change in the engine tone giving me the alarming prospect that the new gearbox was slipping. On reflection, it was probably just some weed on the speed transducer as it never happened again. After several fruitless attempts to sail we gave up and chugged along. Ironically by the time we had enough wind to sail we were unable to hold the boat back from sailing way too fast for the timed arrival in the Faroe Islands.
Day 152 Saturday 22nd August 26
We needed to arrive at a very specific time to avoid the dangerous “rosts” and to ride the tide up to Leirvik. The tide off Leirvik, according to the RCC pilot book, can run at 11 knots!
Slowing Sumara down, once she underway is a devilish difficult task. Eventually a reefed Yankee, a triple reefed main and some poor trimming did the trick. As it happens, I had not realised the tidal diagrams were in local time and not GMT so we could have maintained our fast speed without coming to harm.
The dramatic Faroe landscape gradually unfolded through the drizzle.
We soon came into the lee of the land and the sea state moderated and eventually the wind died down and so we chugged along and entered Leirvik harbour bang on time at 10:00GMT. The average speed over 375nm was 4.7kn.
We first tied up to a tyred wall which was once used as the ferry terminal before the tunnel was openned.
I went ashore with my lead line to see if there was enough water to get Sumara into the small boat harbour which our charts stated as only having 0.6m depth at low water springs.
I met a helpful lady who felt that our 1.4m draft would be fine, this was backed up by a chap in a motor cruiser. We gingerly moved the boat into the inner harbour and moored to a pontoon.
Our lady friend mentioned that the next town along, Klaksvik, had a wooden boat festival on and gave us details of the buses. We were too tired to enjoy a boat show that day, having only had a few hours sleep, but decided that we would visit the festival on Sunday.
Day 154 Sunday 23rd August 2026
After 15 hours of deep sleep we awoke refreshed on Sunday morning to catch the number 400 bus through the tunnel to Klaksvik. The smart bus arrived bang on time and ten minutes later we were strolling the waterside in search of the festivities. After walking to the wrong side of the harbour, we eventually arrived at the site to find that it was very much a one day affair and the various marquees were being dismantled. It was a huge shame that we didn’t choose Klaksvik as our port of arrival as Sumara would have no doubt enjoyed a huge welcome.
There were just a few boats remaining including “Westward Ho” and “Dragin” which we inspected in great detail.
Being a Sunday all of the shops were closed. During our wanderings we stumbled upon a game of women’s football which to me seemed much more fun than watching men’s football. We inquired whether anywhere was open for coffee and a sandwich and were directed to a rather wonderful bakery called Amarant on the edge of town.
As everything else was closed we decided to head back to Leirvik only to find we had just missed the lunchtime bus and the next one was at 18:05.
On the far side of the bay we spotted a dark hulled yacht and decided to visit it. This was a good move as when we arrived at the 45 foot steel yacht we found the owner to be aboard and what an interesting person!
He invited us on board and soon we could tell that this chap was no ordinary sailor. He had just returned fron Scoresby Sund, single handed, but it was the small details on his boat which made us soon realise that this sailor was rather special.
He had bought the boat in Mexico and completed substantial work on her before sailing via Chile back to his home port of Malliag in Scotland. The ingenious small details would be worthy of a book. Interestingly he, like Will Stirling would accept no plywood on his boat and his maple and iroko floors were laid on 5mm aluminium sheets. He also had my adversion to lines being fed back to the cockpit. I have never really grasped this modern concept. Everywhere on the yacht the details, all made by Nigel, showed up a deep knowledge and ingenious cleverness. It transpired the Nigel was both a fisherman, with a fine wooden boat, and an highly respected rural architect.
Time flew by and we had to catch the last bus to Leirvik where we finished the day with a beer in the local bowling alley!
Day 155 Monday 24th August 2026
It is jobs day while the wind blows from the south. I need to clean the paraffin filter or change a burner on Taylors cooker, mend the Yankee winch which seems to occassionally seize up, drain some fuel from the diesel tank and cart more diesel down from the local garage.
There is a lot to do so I had better get on with it!
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